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ADDRESSES 



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Hi.O.™;iffljH«n.aW(lHfiES, 



OF NORTH CAROLINA, 



OF INDIANA, 



AT THE OPEI^ING OF THE 



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ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 



"Wednesday, October 5, 1881. 



Hon, A. H. Oolquit^ Governor of Georg-kirfimsJding 




AVASHINGTON, D. C. : ^**'>ife 

R. O. POLKINHORN, PRINTER. 

1881. 



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ADDRESS 



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SENATOR VANCE. 



Mr. VANCE said: 

Countrymen: The Spanish soldier DeLeon, in the early part of the 
sixteenth century, anxiously sought through the wilds of the Florida 
peninsula for the fountain that would renew youth; and his no less il- 
lustrious countryman, DeSoto, cut his way through all this Southern 
wilderness in search of the fabled hills of gold. Both died without 
finding the object of their search. Nevertheless, they trampled over 
it every day; they beheld it with their eyes; they inhaled it through 
their nostrils. It was the soil and the atmosphere, fitted to the pro- 
duction of that wondrous plant in whose honor we have assembled to- 
day. Better than the fountain of DeLeon, it renews the youth of na- 
tions; richer than the golden hills of DeSoto, its wealth, annually re- 
peated, is inexhaustible. Through its means the splendors of modern 
commerce are made to surpass the glories of Tyre, Carthage and Ven- 
ice. The world is now interested in its growth from the germ to its 
maturity, as the Infant Heir of the Blood Royal to the Empire of Trade. 
The merchant in the distant city listens for tidings of its coming up ; 
the manufacturer araidhis brick walls and tall chimneys anxiously 
observes its bloom; the restless speculator gazes upon its young bolls; 
the mariner, with his broad sails flapping idly against his masts, waits 
for its maturing, and the poor everywhere pray for the gentle shower 
and the soft sunlight on which it feeds, and rejoice at its safe ingather- 
ing. Its growth is the idyllic poem of our people; its mature existence 
is a system of political economy. It is the source of the hoarse shout 
of the steam engine; it is the melody of the soft song of the spindle 
and the loom. It is the fairy of the waterfall — it is warmth, it is com- 
fort, it is beauty. It is the pride of our fields, the source of our wealth, 
the king of our commerce. 

This day we celebrate, with pageantry and rejoicings, the beneficent 
glories of our monarch ; and in its train we have brought every 
other product of our goodly land to this fair young city. Our tobacco, 
our bread-grains, rice; our timbers and forest products; sugar-cane, 
tropical fruits and flowers; coal, iron, copper, silver, gold, corundum 



and precious stones ; marble, malachite, mica from mines opened by 
the Toltecs a thousand years before the coming of Christ; and all use- 
ful and precious things from the bosom of the earth or that grow upon 
the surface thereof; the fruit of our orchards and the eschol clusters trom 
our vineyards; specimens from our infant manufactures and arts. 

To me has been assigned the pleasing duty of welcoming those who 
come from distant regions to participate in this grand parliament of 
industry. 

We who live by deducing from Mother Earth the fabric which 
clothes her children, welcome you men of the West, who, following 
kindred pursuits, live by evolving bread from the fertile bosom of na- 
ture. 

You, merchants and shippers of the East and North, we welcome 
you to this exhibition of a people whose industry furnishes the chief 
article of your commerce — the principal agent of your foreign exchange. 
You, manufacturers and artisans of the East, we welcome you to 
tMs exhibition of the productions ot a people which assures j^ou that 
they can live and thrive with no other governmental aid than that 
which is given by peace and respect for the rights of property. 

Farmers, merchants, manufacturers, miners, carriers, laboring men 
and men of letters, the great army of civilizers and supporters of pro- 
gress and tree government, the men of the press, strangers and look- 
ers-on, countrymen and countrywomen— we welcome you all. To 
every one present or to come we extend a Southern welcome, warm 
as our sunshine, and bid him behold what can be done by a land whose 
fields were but yesterday "kneaded into bloody sods by the madden- 
ing wheels of artillery; " whose beasts of burden were swept away 
by devastating armies ; whose noblest sons were slaughtered in battle; 
whose homes were burned with fire, and whose State governments 
have passed through an era of corruption worse than anarchy. We 
invite you with pride to witness these conclusive tests of the genial 
nature of our climate, the fertility of our soil, the energy of our people, 
the conservative vitality of our political institutions; in short, we in- 
vite you to see that we have renewed our youth at the fountains of in- 
dustry and found the hills of gold in the energies of an imperishable 
race. 

You will remember, too, that what we are in the South is chiefly 
due to the almost unmixed blood of the pre-revolutionary settlers in 
these sun-loved wilds. The migration of races and nationalities which 
has so largely sought the shores of the new world within the last 
hundred years has scarcely touched our borders; it has flowed across 
the Alleghanies, peopled the great valley, moved along to the base of 
the Rocky Mountains and across tlieir snowy summits to the shores of 
the western sea, marking its progress everywhere by wealth and pros- 



8 

pepity. The South, too, by this exhibition of its industries, resources 
and capacities, desires to invite a share of tliis wealth-giving influx to 
her own borders, and will receive gladly all who will come to her in 
the name of labor and law and free government. 

To every human soul, from all the broad realms of Christendom, 
which may have one desire to promote the happiness and stimulate the 
progress of our race, which can add one voice in praise of the triumphs 
of peace, we say — welcome! in God's name, to the hearts and homes 
of this southern land; to the hospitalities of this most active and pub- 
lic spirited of our cities, whose vigorous growth and rapid development 
show that American thrift and enterprise are confined to no section. 
We invite you to learn what you can of us, of our hopes and fears, our 
prejudices and methods of thought, our systems of action, our desires 
and our devotion to a common country. Teach us, if you can, in all 
these things a more perfect way. We will gladly learn of those whose 
success justifies them in teaching us. We would gladly learn a lesson 
in industry from the men of the great Northwest ; in thrift and the arts 
from the men of the East; in business sagacity from the men of the 
great cities. 

I need not remind you, my countrymen, that we stand in the shadow 
of a great calamity. But, verily, the wrath of man is the praise of the 
Almighty. The sufferings and deatli of the President of the United 
States have touched all hearts in this great land, and none with a more 
tender emotion than those of the South. It has awakened every feeling 
of pity, and every sentiment of chivalry in our breasts. A common 
sorrow has made the American people remember that they have a 
common country, and the cold page of history will say that this re- 
union of estranged hearts is his noblest monument. In the language 
of the old Arabian chroniclers, he has passed to the clemency of the 
Most High; and may we not permit the feelings of brotherhood in- 
spired by his death ever to perish. And may the intermingling here 
bear fruit in the time to come, with us and with our children, worthy 
the citizenship of a free Christian Republic. May every legitimate 
branch of human industry, and every generous passion of the human 
soul, be stimulated and enlarged by this exhibition, so honorable to 
the great State whose people conceived and brought it about. 



ADDRESS 

OF 

SENATOR VOORHEES 



Mr. VOORHEES said: 

Mr. President: The progress of civilization has been measured at 
every stage by the productions of the earth. The history of the hu- 
man race, for good or for evil, has been written in the cultivation of 
the soil. The stamp of superiority is upon those communities and na- 
tions wherein agriculture has been pushed to its highest excellence — 
while those who have disdained the tillage of the fields, or negligently 
performed that great primary duty, have loitered in the rear, and been 
overtaken by calamity and degradation. Wherever the ploughshare 
has been allowed to rust and the pruning-hook has been idle, there 
the historian has written of degeneracy, decay, and barbarism. The 
sword may lend its heroic gleam to a nation's history, but without the 
patient energies of productive labor it will have no permanent strength 
or glory. A thousand elements of national greatness and power may 
be pointed out by the pen of the historian in the career of a govern- 
ment, but they all rest immediately and directly upon the toil of those 
who clear away the forests, enclose the fields, and plow and plant and 
sow and reap. Other pursuits are more ostentatious, and make more 
noise in the world than that of agriculture, but, like the vain and rich- 
ly-dressed son of a plain father, they are all dependent upon more use- 
ful virtues than their own. Majestic cities, with their proud display, 
and their hum and roar of trade, have been the theme of history and 
eloquence from the earliest annals of the human race to the present 
hour, and yet they are but the perishable blossoms on that great tree 
of life whose roots are in the ground. If the labor ot the husbandman 
should cease or the earth refuse its sustenance, the palaces of cities 
would become the habitations of the bats; their market-places would 
be silent, and grass would grow in their streets. The commerce of 
the civilized world is to-day floating on ocean, lake, and river, and 
crowding the sheltered bays and harbors of all the four quarters of the 
globe. Its ships go down to every sea amidst the applause and won- 
der of the world, and yet if the arm of industry should be paralyzed in 
the field, and corn and cotton should fail, they would drift tenantless 
on the waters or rot in idleness alongside' of rotting and abandoned 
wharves. The traffic, the support, the wealth, the progress of the 



whole human family, all begin with the furrow in the ground. The 
merchant-prince in the city of New York who rides behind four 
blooded horses in Central Park in the evening is a useless factor in hu- 
man affairs compared to the farmer of the Northwest who produces 
food for the world, or to the planter of the South who supplies man- 
kind with clothing. Nearly 100,000 miles of railroad have drawn 
their lines across the face of this country, and in wealth and power 
many of the great railroad corporations do not shrink from a trial of 
strength and influence with the Government itself. But every rail of 
iron and of steel, and every locomotive and car which speeds over the 
track is paid for, sustained, and made profitable by the productions of 
the farm. The railroad president, in his sumptuous car entertaining 
his directors, is of far less importance to the stockholders of his corpor- 
ation, and to his fellow-beings generally, than he who handles the 
corn-planter, the vp^heat-drill, or the cotton-cultivator. All this is in 
accordance with the experience of ages as well as with the teachings 
of Divine wisdom. It was decreed in the beginning that man should 
have dominion over the earth, and that this dominion should be 
achieved and maintained by labor. But in this estimate of the value 
of productive industry there is an implied element without which it 
cannot extort the gifts, the wealth and the bounties of nature, nor as- 
sume that mastery in human affairs which it is designed to hold. That 
element is knowledge in its broadest sense. Ignorant industry is a sad 
spectacle, but it has filled the world in past ages, and in certain por- 
tions of the earth it continues to do so. "We are accustomed to hear a 
superiority claimed for some of the most prominent nations of anti- 
quity over the civilization of modern times. The claim is unfounded. 
Their labor was not guided by the intelligence and the vast discover- 
ies of the present. The physical sciences were to them a sealed book. 
Asia is the parent land of the human race, and has made the longest 
experiment in progress and civilization. It is the largest of the four 
geographical quarters of the globe, and contains more than one-half 
the inhabitants of the earth. It possesses every variety of climate be- 
neath the sun, and soils as luxuriant as the rains ever descended up- 
on. Its mineral resources arc boundless, and it is watered by rivers 
and inland seas of almost illimitable extent. With all this natural 
strength, however, and unnumbered centuries in which to develop it, 
what answer have the Asiatic populations, either in the remote past 
or in the present, made to the question of the world's advancement? 
In what field of productive industry have they brought forward the 
great staples of commerce and civilization ? The wealth of nature is 
all there in teeming abundance, and has been through myriad centu- 
ries, but labor has wroi^'ht its task blindfolded by ignorance, and 
borne its heavy burdens without relief from the hand of science. The 
common plough, that universal forerunner of all national greatness. 



and of all liuman elevation, remains the same contemptible contriv- 
ance now tlirougliout the East that it was when Joseph's brethren 
watered their camels at the Kile on tjLietr journey to Egypt in quest of 
corn. The inhabitants of Persia, Arabia, Turkey, China, and Japan 
have known no aid from invention in the tillage of the soil. The re- 
sult is that though they are the oldest offspring in the human famil}^ 
they are still so far in the rear as to be not much considered in the act- 
ive and practical thought of the world . We are often cited to the an- 
cient achievements of Egypt as evidence of the superiority of antiquity 
over modern progress. It is very difficult for me to believe in the men- 
tal cultivation of a people who worshiped crocodiles and who did not 
know that the rains in the mountains causeci the Nile to overflow. 
The traveler who is always in search of the curious, and not of the 
useful, points, in wonder and awe, to the pyramids; but if, in his 
zeal, he could find on their base some hieroglyphic, some device, de- 
sign, or drawing as evidence that the Egyptians, sometime in their his- 
tory, had built a corn-planter or a cotton-gin, a reaper or a threshing- 
machine, or invented some simple thing like a revolving rake or a 
cotton-press, their claims to a high civilization would have a reason- 
able and a strong foundation on which to rest. In the absence, how- 
ever, of all proof of any such improvements in agriculture, it is safest 
to assume that distance, and not merit, lends enchantment to our view 
when we dwell upon Egyptian history. And may we not venture to 
inquire whether much, if any more, can be truthfully claimed for the 
agricultural improvements of Greece or Rome? 

This, of course, is sacred ground with the old antiquarian who sees 
nothing great that is not venerable, and also with the young who still 
remember that Yirgil and Horace wrote pastoral poetry, and that Xen- 
ophon and Cicero indited charming letters to their friends on the beau- 
ties of rural life. But after listening with delight to the eloquence of 
their orators, and to the music of their poets; after witnessing the mus- 
tering of their warlike legions and their battles of conquest, rapine, 
and plunder, as well as of defense against final overthrow; after wan- 
dering through stately ruins of their architecture and sculpture, I 
challenge the facts of their vast and far-reaching histories in proof of 
the assertion that the great foundation elements of real national 
strength, prosperity, and durability were wanting at every stage 
of both Grecian and Roman civilization. Descriptions of the farming 
implements of those classic lands have descended to us, and we have 
examined them with a curious mixture of incredulity and derision. 
The oxen, with a straight yoke attached to a mean, primitive plough, 
merely scratching the surface of fields of unending fertility, mark the 
weakness of a people at the very point where they must be strongest 
in order to achieve permanent power and glory. Their historians 



have painted their marches and their battles in everlasting colors; 
their orators have discussed public affairs in lofty and immortal tones; 
their poets and dramatists have delineated the passions of the human 
heart in all its moods— but where, in the country of Themistocles or 
Caesar, will be found the record of a world's fair, or an exposition of 
the triumphs of productive labor, or a display of mechanical improve- 
ments, the results of inventive genius in aid of husbandry ? No re- 
sponse comes to this question save the decline and downfall of govern- 
ments which rested their claims to greatness and power on the victor- 
ies of war instead of upon the more renowned victories of peace. 

Sir, it is not in the distant past that we are to look for examples of 
enlightened industry, nor shall we find there, except in feeble degrees, 
those influences upon which the nations of the earth depend for their 
stability and progress. On such an occasion as this, and surrounded 
as we are bj the proofs, we may rightfully salute the present century 
as having more perfectly combined knowledge with labor, and more 
harmoniously wedded the sciences to all the branches of useful toil, 
than all the centuries together which have gone before. We stand 
upon an elevation in the scale of human advancement never trod by 
the feet of former generations, and we are surrounded by a light such 
as never fell upon their pathways . From this high point of observa- 
tion let us glance at the duties to which we are bound, the achieve- 
ments already accomplished, and our capabilities for the future. 

You are met at this hour to celebrate the opening day of an exposi- 
tion of the fruits of agricultural labor andof the arts of mechanical in- 
vention, to which the nations of the earth are invited, and to which 
many of them have made their contributions. A world's fair is here 
inaugurated for the interest and encouragement of human industry 
in all sections ahd countries. The fraternity of toil, of enterprise, and 
of inventive genius is here recognized and proclaimed. The charac- 
ter of this auspicious demonstration is international. It is an affair 
among the nations, and in its great purposes they are all vitally inter- 
ested. The objects to be promoted by this exposition, its designs and 
its influences, are as far-reaching as the abodes of civilized man. All 
the industries here make their entry and display; but, located as you 
are in this beautiful zone of peculiar production, you have invited your 
guests in the name of the great and majestic staple of the South. This 
is the home of the cotton plant, and some of us have come from dis- 
tant parts to pay it honor. In doing so, may I not be pardoned for 
dwelling briefly on its marvelous career of glorious utility ? 

Sir, it is less than a hundred years since American cotton made its 
modest, and indeed humble, entrance into the markets of the world. 
There are persons now living who were born before merchants and 
traders had mentioned cotton as a production of this country likely to 



enter into commercial transactions. In 1792 not more than 550 bales 
were exported from the United States. So little was known of this 
gigantic production that '' it is related that in 1764 William Rathhone, 
an extensive American merchant in Liverpool, received from one of 
his correspondents in the Southern States a consignment of eight bags 
of cotton, which, on its arrival in Liverpool, was seized by the cus- 
tom-house officers, on the allegation that it could not have been 
grown in the American colonies, and that it was liable to seizure, un- 
der the shipping acts, as not being imported in a vessel belonging to 
the country of its growth. When afterward released it lay for many 
months unsold in consequence of the spinners doubting whetner it 
could be profitably worked up." The world was unconscious of the 
mighty revolution in all its industries just then impending. Until 
within the present century the supply of cotton for the use of mankind 
was derived mainly from the East Lidies, with minor quantities from 
China, Egypt, and a few other unreliable sources. In India its 
growth has been from time immemorial, and far five centuries, at 
least, before the Christian era it was manufactured extensively by the 
inhabitants of that country for their own use. They appear to have 
made no advancement, however, either in the cultivation or the man- 
ufacture of this great vegetable product. The light of more than 
2,000 years of history is thrown upon them, and by that light we be- 
hold them standing still, fixed in the primitive methods of their igno- 
rant ancestors, heedless of the advantages of soil, climate, and all the. 
powerful elements of nature, making no progress themselves and con- 
tributing nothing to the wants of other countries. It is true that dur- 
ing the last hundred years, commencing about the year 1?88, great ef- 
forts have been made by English talent and energy, through the 
agency of the East India Company, to increase the production of cot- 
ton in India for exportation to the looms and spindles of Great Brit- 
ain, and a considerable measure of success has attended these efforts. 
But this is the work of modern thought and an enlightened self-inter- 
est on the part of England, and in which she has been largely aided 
by the strife which raged between brethren in this country during the 
last twenty years. The conduct of the native population of India, 
however, on this subject presents a singular and instructive spectacle. 
A recent writer of high authority gives the following description of 
their manufacturing processes: 

"The implements used by the Indians in the different processes of 
the cotton manufacture, from the cleaning of the wool to its conver- 
sion into the finest muslin, may be purchased for the value of a few 
shillings, and are of so rude and simple a construction as to be evi- 
dently the invention of a very early period. * * * * . * 

"The loom is composed of a few sticks or reeds, which the Indian 
carries about with him and puts up in the fields under the shade of a 
tree or at the side of his cottage. He digs a hole large enough to con- 



10 

tain Iiis legs and the lower part of tlie gear, and fastens the balances 
to some convenient branch overhead. Two loops underneath the gear, 
in which he inserts his great toes, serve as treadles ; and he employs 
the shuttle, formed like a large netting needle, but of a length some- 
what exceeding the breadth of the cloth, as batton, using it alternately 
to draw through the web and strike it up. The reed is the only part 
of the weaving apparatus which approaches, in the perfection ot its 
construction, to the instruments we use. The loom has no beam, and 
the warp is laid out upon the ground the whole length of the piece of 
cloth. 

"The weavers live entirely in villages, as they could not, if shut up 
in towns, work in this manner. It ie probable that the whole of the 
implements which have just been described existed as we now find 
them before the people of India were divided into castes. The trans- 
mission of the same employment from father to son, which is the in- 
variable practice in India, while it has the effect of conveying unim- 
paired ^he knowledge in any art, tends to check its further advance- 
ment." 

It is true that great dexterity and slight of hand has been acquired 
by the East Indian manufacturer, from the spinning of the yarn upon 
the distafi, until from his ill-constructed loom he sometimes produces 
"those muslins which are said, when spread upon the grass, to appear 
like the gossamer web." But nothing could be done in this way to 
meet the demand of the world for cotton fabrics, and therefore we find 
that the first steam spinning and weaving mill was established in In- 
dia as recently as 1863 by the East India Company. It was located at 
Kurla, in Bombay. Others have followed, and it is estimated now 
that there are 10,000 looms and over a million and a quarter spindles 
in operation in the presidencies of Bengal, Madras, Surat and other 
purts of India. England has carried her manufacturing machinery 
and skilled labor into the ijaidst of her Eastern cotton fields, thus set- 
ting an example calling loudly for imitation in other countries. The 
lesson taught by the history of cotton in the East Indies is that the 
producer should not only be enlightened as to its cultivation, but that 
he should also become its manufacturer at honwe, with all the applian- 
ces of scientific invention. The production and manufacture of cotton 
in China have even a more peculiar history than in India. We have 
the means of observing the industrial pursuits of that vast and crowded 
hive of humanity as far back as nearly 3,000 years ago, but the ear- 
liest mention made of cotton in Chinese history is only about 200 years 
before the Christian era. And then, for a space of thirteen centuries 
the plant was cultivated in the gardens of the wealthy merely as a thing 
of beauty, and its flowers appear to have been celebrated in their poems 
and romances. As late as the sixth century the f\ict that the Emperor 
wore a robe of cotton on his coronation day is mentioned to show the 
rare and precious character of his royal raiment. It was only after 
thousands of years of actual contact and experience with cotton that 
the people of the Celestial Empire began to discover that its utility was 



11 

as universal and almost as beneficent as light and air. By primitive 
methods, and painfully slow degrees, they hav'e, however, finally ad- 
vanced to a point, if not of commanding importance to the world on 
this subject, at least illustrating some of its peculiar features. It is in 
fact a wonderful thing to say that a population of over 400,000,000, 
crowded together under any one Government, and engaged in homo- 
geneous pursuits, feed and clothe themselves by their own productions 
and manufactories. This is more nearly true of those almost countless 
hordes who inhabit China proper and her dependencies than of any 
other quarter of the globe. The Chinese Government has learned the 
greatest of all lessons in strength and security at home and dignity 
abroad. It is foremost among the Nations of the earth in the honors 
it pays to agricultural labor. It has made the work of the tea and cot- 
ton planter, of the rice and maize, and wheat and barley grower, a 
credit to him and to his posterity. In honor of agriculture there is a 
grand State ceremony performed on each New Year's day. One of 
their historians says, in describing this ceremony: 

"The Emperor, accompanied by his great ogicers of State, repairs 
to the Sacred Field, and, having ofiered sacrifice on an altar of earth, 
he traces a furrow with the plough, and his example is followed by 
Princes and ministers. A like solemnity is celebrated by the Gov- 
ernor of every Province who represents the Emperor. The agricul- 
tural system of the Chinese is rude, but efiective; and every inch of 
arable land is carefully cultivated. Spade husbandry and irrigation 
are carried on to a great extent." 

Prom this description the Chinese farmer appears in the highest re- 
pute at home, but with his great calling undeveloped and unaided by 
modern progress. He feeds himself, and has not aspired to feed the 
world. The example of the Chinese manufacturer has been much the 
same. He has been content to clothe his own countrymen and has 
not invaded the channels of foreign commerce. The manufacture of 
cotton goods is now very extensive in China, though still far behind 
the improved processes of English and American invention; but their 
fabrics are entirely for home consumption. Indeed, the Chinese are 
importers from India and elsewhere of the raw materials for their 
looms, in order to meet the home demand for cotton cloth. But little 
of their marvelous handicraft is seen in the markets of the world 
Now and then we catch a glimpse of "their silks and satins, light 
gauzes, beautiful embroidery, elaborate engraving on wood and stone, 
delicate filagree work in gold and silver, carvings on ivory, fine lac- 
quered ware, antique vessels in bronze and their brilliant coloring on 
the famous pith paper," but we behold them rather as beautiful orna- 
ments of luxury than as articles of use and trade. 

Sir, it is to the West and to modern intelligence, and not to the East 
and the methods of antiquity, that we are to look for the solution of 
the mighty problem of human advancement and human destiny. The 



12 

scene has shifted from the valleys of the Euphrates, the Nile and the 
Ganges to the Valley of the Mississippi; from the shores of the Medi- 
terranean and the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards 
of the American Republic. Here is to be wrought out what the an- 
cient philosophers dreamed, but never saw accomplished. Here hu- 
man society and government are to reach their strongest, highest and 
most rational development, bottomed on the agricultural and mechani- 
cal industries, inspired and governed by knowledge — knowledge that 
in itself is power. Those great arts of labor over which the myriad 
multitudes of the East have stumbled in a state of blind imbecility for 
countless centuries have here found their full and splendid develop- 
ment in a single hour, as it were, in the reckoning of time's duration- 
It seems but yesterday, in the count of the days of all the ages, since 
this continent became known to written history, and a still briefer 
space since any of its inhabitants first became potential factors in the 
useful concerns of the world. We have seen that but 117 years ago 
English Custom House officers disbelieved in the existence of Ameri' 
can cotton, and that it lay for months in Liverpool scorned by the buy- 
ers as worthless. Ninety years ago there was not a cotton mill in the 
United States. The battles of the Revolution had been fought, Corn- 
wallis had surrendered, the old articles of the Confederation had been 
superceded by the Constitution of the Union, when in 1791 the first 
cotton mill was erected on American soil in the State of Rhode Island. 
During the next succeeding six years eleven additional mills were 
erected in the same State, two in Massachusetts and one in Connecti- 
cut, making in all fifteen mills, working about 8,000 spindles, and 
making about 300,000 pounds of yarn per annum. Substantially with 
this showing the cotton interest of this country passed from the close 
of the last century to the opening of the present. The year 1800 made 
a feeble exhibit, and gave out faint promise of what has followed. 
The American manufacture of cotton in that year amounted to but 500 
bales; in 1805, 1,000 bales ; in 1810, 10,000 bales ; and in 1815, 90,000 
bales. It will be seen that the American cotton factory was, indeed, 
once an infant, but it was a robust child of American genius and in- 
dustry, and grew rapidly. Now it stands an acknowledged giant of 
magnificent proportions. Now more than seven hundred and fifty 
mills, manufacturing annually over a million and a half of bales, are 
in operation, not only in New England and New York, but in New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio and Indiana as well 
as in Alabama, Georgia, the two Carolinas. Mississippi, Virginia and 
other Southern States. 

The following table of statistics from the forthcoming census report 
for 1880 has been kindly furnished tome in advance of its publication, 
and is of interest in this connection . 



13 



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14 



It was discovered more than half a century ago that the cotton 
fields of the Southern States were capable, under proper cultivation- 
of supplying not only all American industries, but all the cotton indus- 
tries of the civilized nations of the world. With the knowledge of 
this fact on the part of the South on the one hand, and the activity and 
intelligent energy of manufacturing capital in this country and abroad 
on the other, arose those great and vital questions of American states- 
manship which are still engaging the public thought. What an inter- 
esting book of history has been written on this subject. The greatest 
intellects in the conduct of human affairs have contributed largely to 
its pages. There were three natural and necessary propositions to be 
considered in connection with the production and manufacture of cot- 
ton, and they remain substantially the same to the present hour — 

1. The establishment and maintenance of the manufacturing indus- 
tries of the United States were essential to the domestic prosperity and 
the real independence of the American people. 

2 The manufacturer claimed from his Government a protection 
against foreign competition with which he was unable to contend, and 
which if left free would close his mills and drive him out of the busi- 
ness. 

3. The producer of cotton in the fields desired to sell to the best bid- 
ders, and buy back the manufactured cloth at the cheapest rates 
quoted in the markets of all countries. 

To reconcile these great and laudable interests into a harmonious 
national policy has been at every stage of our history, and still con- 
tinues to be, a task worthy of the ablest minds and of the purest and 
highest patriotism. I can not hope to add new light to a theme on 
which so much wisdom has been expended, but a few thoughts sug- 
gested by thi3 exposition may not be out of place. It is unfortunate 
that political partisanship has so often, for mere temporary and per- 
sonal success, dealt with the gravest and most vital questions of the 
world's advancement. The relations between the productions of the 
earth as they leave the field and their condition when manufactured 
for the use of man, rest upon principles far above and beyond the ex- 
pediency or the necessity of parties. That line of policy which comes 
nearest the promotion of the prosperity and comfort of the whole peo- 
ple of a commonwealth may safely be accepted as the true one. No 
one will contend that the absence of manufacturing pursuits would 
promote the prosperity of the American people. It is beyond doubt 
that the closer a market is brought to the farmer for his agricultural 
productions, the more he will save in the matter of transportation, and 
the better it will be for his neighborhood. It is on this account that 
Adam Smith has said: 

"Whatever tends to diminish in any country the number of artifi- 
cers and manufacturers tends to diminish the home market, the most 



15 

important of all markets for the produce of the land, and thereby still 
further to discourage agriculture." 

Diversity of employment among laborers, and success in all the 
channels of human thought and action, so indispensable to national 
strength and renown, can only be secured by opening up all the 
branches of mechanical as well as agricultural industry. The most 
honored fathers of the republic have spoken in no uncertain tones on 
this point. It arrested the attention of Washington's great and saga- 
cious mind in the earliest infancy of the Government. In his last an- 
nual address in 1796 he recorded his views as follows: 

"Congresses have repeatedly, and not without success, directed 
their attention to the encouragement of manufactures. The object is 
of too much consequence not to ensure a continuance of their efforts 
in every way which shall appear eligible." 

At a later period, in 1816, when the importance of the subject had. 
vastly increased, Thomas Jefferson, whose mind illuminated every- 
thing it touched, and shed light into the darkness of the whole world 
on the science of government, gave utterance to the following strong 
expressions: 

"We have experienced what we did not then believe— that there 
exist both profligacy and power enough to exclude us from the field of 
exchanges with other nations; that to be independent for the comforts 
of life we must fabricate them ourselves. We must now place our 
manufacturers by the side of the agriculturist. The former question 
is now suppressed, or rather assumes a new form. The grand inquiry 
now is, shall we make our own comforts or go without them at the 
will of a foreign nation 'i He, therefore, who is now against domestic 
manufactures must be for reducing us either to a dependence upon 
that nation, or to be clothed in skins and live like beasts in dens and 
caverns. I am proud to say that I am not one of these. Experience 
has taught me that manufactures are now as necessary to our indepen- 
dence as to our comfort." 

In a special message to Congress, in May, 1809, James Madison, 
then President of the United States, says: 

"The revision of our commercial laws, proper to adapt them to the 
arrangement which has taken place with Glreat Britain, will doubtless 
engage the early attention of Congress. It will be worthy, at the 
same time, of their just and provident care to make such further al- 
terations in the laws as will more especially protect and foster the sev- 
eral branches of manufacture which have been recently instituted or 
extended by the laudable exertion of our citizens. ' ' 

In the first inaugural address of President Monroe, March, 1817, the 
subject is thus presented: 

" Our manufactures will likewise require the systematic and foster- 
ing care of the Government. Possessing, as we do, all the raw ma- 
terials, the truit of our own soil and industry, we ought not to depend 
in the degree we have done on supplies from other countries. While 
we are thus dependent, the sudden event of war, unsought and unex- 
pected, cran not fail to plunge us into the most serious difficulty. It 
is important, too, that the capital which nourishes our manufactures 
should be domestic, as its influence in that case, instead of exhausting, 
as it must do in foreign hands, would be felt advantageously on agri- 



16 

culture and on every branch of industry. Equally important is it to 
provide at home a market for our raw materials; as, by extending the 
competition, it will enhance the price, and protect the cultivator 
against the causalities incident to foreign markets." 

Coming down to a still later date and to a name not less distin- 
guished, we read the following letter written by Andrew Jackson in 
May, 1823, to Robert Patterson, of Philadelphia: 

"A few days since I had the pleasure to receive the grass hat which 
you had been pleased to present and forward to Mrs. Jackson as a 
token of the respect and esteem entertained for my public services. 
Permit me, sir, to return to you my grateful acknowledgments for the 
honor conferred upon us in this token. Mrs. Jackson will wear with 
pride a hat made by American hands, and made of American materi- 
als. Its workmanship, reflecting the highest credit upon its authors, 
will be regarded as an evidence of the perfection which our domestic 
manufactures may hereafter acquire if properly fostered and protected. 
Upon the success of our manufactures, as the hand-maid of agricul- 
ture and commerce, depends in a great measure the independence of 
our country, and I assure you that none can feel more sensibly than I 
do the necessity of encouraging them." 

I have cited these opinions of the men who framed the Government, 
and took part in its early administration, in order to show the aus- 
pices under which encouragement and protection were first extended 
to American manufacturers. Differences have existed, and been ex- 
haustively discussed, as to the methods by which these ends were to 
be attained, but not as to the ends themselves. Every school of states- 
manship from the foundation of the Government to the present time 
has admitted the duty of fostering, encouraging and protecting the 
manufacturing industries. I am not here to discuss the different poli- 
cies which have, from time to time, been advanced, but the great fact 
of protection, whether as an incident to the raising of revenue or in a 
bolder and more direct form, is a part of American history and Amer- 
ican progress. In justification of this fact, if it needs justification, ^the 
conduct and history of other Nations on this subject should not be 
overlooked. The American Republic was a late comer into the family 
of Nations, and the Governments of the Old World had a far away 
and tremendous start of us, in everything except our blood-bought 
liberties, before we moved at all in the race of national life. European 
Governments had for a thousand years been constructing and recon- 
structing their 'laws, on the subjects of production, manufacture, in- 
ternal trade, and foreign commerce, before the lines were made on the 
map of the World which enclose the United States. Nor Avas the new 
Republic, based on the principles of the declaration of American inde- 
pendence, warmly or cordially welcomed into commercial fellowship 
with countries governed by Kings, Emperors, Czars, Shahs, Sultans 
and other royal potentates. Treaties were not made with us in the 
earlier years of our independence, as with a favored Nation, in the 
language of diplomacy, and this was more especially true as to Great 
Britain than any other power. We were, therefore, not free to choose 



17 

our commercial policy with other Governments as we might have been 
had we equalled them in age, opportunity, development, wealth, and 
experience. Freedom of trade has a seductive sound, but if it be not 
reciprocal, and of equal advantage among Nations, it is attractive only 
in sound, and nothing more. The policy of a wise Government is nec- 
essarily one of self-interest, and it has a trust to perform in the care of 
its own people before carrying its benevolence to others. The policy 
of a free and unrestricted exchange and sale of commodities between 
commercial countries has, for the last fifty years especially, been the 
theme of eulogy on the part of British writers and statesmen, but it 
cannot be forgotten that this policy was never advanced on the part of 
Great Britain until, by hundreds of years of not merely protective but 
prohibitory legislation, she had so fostered and built up her home in- 
dustries, and at the same time so cheapened the wages of labor, tha^ 
competition on the part of other Nations was no longer feared. The 
student of history has but a short distance to go into the past in order 
to find English laws denouncing the barbarous penalties of death and 
mutilation against the importation of certain manufactured goods; and 
also against the importation and exportation of certain agricultural 
productions. Such absolute exclusiveness in trade as the compara- 
tively recent history of England presents can hardly be found in any 
other country outside of China. The British corn laws, originating in 
1360, in the reign of Edward III., and repealed only thirty -five years 
ago, constituted the most elaborate and complete barrier to the ex- 
change of agricultural productions ever conceived by man, and they 
were accompanied for centuries by the almost total prohibition of man- 
ufactured imports. These statutory restrictions of trade closed the 
markets of Great Britain to the grain-growing regions of the world, 
and to foreign manufacturers, except upon certain hard conditions, 
and in but few instances . They also set an example on the subject of 
protection to home industries of all kinds which strongly influenced 
the policies of all the neighboring Nations of Europe. It was in the 
face of such a system as this, supported by the laws and international 
usages of nearly five hundred years, that American statesmen were 
first called upon to frame a system of commerce for their own country 
which would most surely develop its resources, give employment to 
its citizens, and render it independent and powerful among jealous 
and unfriendly monarchies. The American people were confronted 
with the alternative of purchasing all manufactured products neces- 
sary to their existence and comfort from abroad, without even free 
markets in Europe for their grain; or, on the other hand, adopt such 
measures as would make them first self-sustaining, and eventually 
formidable competitors in every branch of skill and labor. As a 
purely agricultural people, devoted to that alone, it would have been 
our mission to feed ourselves and starving millions in other lands; but 
with our labor diversified, and Ciipital encouraged in every channel, 



18 

we have performed that mission, and one of infinite progress and glory- 
besides. The homes of tlie people, those sanctuaries of a Nation's ad- 
vancement and strength, where civilization begins, and where its 
richest flowers first spring forth and expand in beauty, have been 
furnished, adorned, and brightened by the labor of home. The giant 
improvements of the age, like mighty pulsating arteries, have carried 
development and wealth to our remotest boundaries, and the whole 
world has taken note of the fact that we are a people equipped with 
an almost perfect combination of all the industrial arts and pursuits. 
There are some faults and blemishes, as in all things human, but in 
the main the work .which our fathers began has been carried forward 
in magnificence and honor. 

As every people, however, have their difi'erent eras, in which new 
systems of thought and action are conceived, or new applications 
made of old and tried ones, may we not be convinced by an occasion 
like the present, and by the whole current of passing events, that 
we stand now upon the threshold of a new era in American enter- 
prise, development and history '? Does it not appear as if a wider field 
is opening for the application of those principles which have already 
made the American name so renowned? The last quarter of a cen- 
tury has been very full of instruction to the people of every section of 
the United States. Some errors have been corrected in every quarter, 
and additional light, though at a painful cost, has been thrown upon 
many subjects This is a world of compensations, and it seems to 
me that for the sorrows of the past we are now standing in the dawn 
of a better day than American history has ever known, and that the 
splendor of its unclouded sun will soon break over our heads. Sir, 
the South enters the arena to contend, for the first time, for the su- 
premacy in all the industrial pursuits. She comes with the light of 
youth and hope in her face, her eyes no longer red with weeping, and 
every patriotic heart in the North salutes her here on these grounds 
with a fraternal embrace. This is a field of peaceful strife over which 
the angels in Heaven have joy. The South and the North meet here 
with one language, one territory, one Government, one allegiance, 
one flag and one heart for the prosperity of all. Those whom God 
hath thus joined together let no man seek to alienate or put asunder ? 

The relations which the Southern States bear to the great questions 
of production and manufacture are of vital and overshadowing im- 
portance. Here stretches, tlirough many degrees of longitude and lat- 
itude, that mighty cotton belt which startled and revolutionized the 
trade of the world less than a century ago; whose fields, with their 
tinted blossoms, are richer and more valuable to mankind than all the 
mines of gold and diamond fields of the earth. It was once thought 
that the cotton plantation was dependent upon a certain sj^stem of la- 
bor. Tlie rapidly increasing ])roduction f)f cotton during the last 
fifteen years has, to the joy of the world, exploded that error. It is 



19 

the creature of intelligent industry hj whomsoever bestowed. It in- 
vites the labor of every nativity and color, and remunerates them all. 
But there is a far higher remuneration than has ever been given by 
cotton yet in store for the laborer, the manufacturer, the South, and 
the entire country. In the midst of the cotton plantations themselves 
there is a career for manufacturing development such as the world has 
not yet seen. Nature here is not only lavish in her gifts to the agri- 
culturist, but she invites the manufacturer also with matchless induce- 
ments. With coal, iron and timber in perfection and inexhaustible, 
and water power everywhere, by what rule of political econom}^ should 
the Southern people send their cotton, at an expense always deducted 
from its price, to distant sections and foreign countries to be spun 
and woven ? If the manufacturer in Great Britain, transporting his 
cotton from India and the United States, can realize substantial iDrofits, 
why may they not be realized here, and thus render an aid to the gen- 
eral welfare ? "We have seen the manufacturer of New England, at a 
long distance from a productive base of supplies, turn a sterile coun- 
try into the seat of culture, refinement and wealth. Why shall not 
the South put forth its energies and reap the same, and a far greater 
reward ? Here the cotton grows up to the doorsteps of your mills, and 
supply and demand clasp hands together. The average exportation 
during the last ten years, from these wonderful fields to England and 
other European ports, has been over 3,000,000 of bales per annum ; 
while to the mills of New England and other Northern States another 
million have been annually carried away from your midst, and from 
the best manufacturing region on the globe. It is my firm belief that 
this policy on the part of the South will not long continue. Sooner or 
later I expect to see those principles of legislation which have filled 
other sections with prosperity applied to the manufacturing interests 
of the South. The spirit of even-handed justice seemes to call for this. 
The manufactories of the Eastern and Middle States were nurtured by 
the G-overnment when unable to stand alone. I am prepared to say 
that within proper and safe limits, and with primary consideration for 
the agriculturalist as the foundation and beginning of everything, the 
same policy of encouragement which has heretofore, in general, 
marked our legislation should now be continued to the infant manu- 
facturing industries of the South and of the West. There is such a 
thing as fair play in the history of a people, and the time has now come 
for the South, in my opinion, to enjoy its fruits. There is a gigantic 
double profit within your reach if you will put forth your hands and 
take it. The profit of the producer you already have; the profit of the 
manufacturer— which enriches Nations — is yours to command ; it 
awaits your call, and if I mistake not the meaning of this day, the call 
has been made! Be assured that it will be answered. It is my fond 
hope and belief that he who is living twenty-five years hence will be- 
hold the transfiguration of the South. New industries, incoming capi- 



20 

tal, and teeming populations are in store for her future. The cotton 
belt proper, extending from North Carolina to Texas, will be studded 
with gems more resplendent than ever shone on the belt or diadem of 
royalty. Along the banks of Southern Streams, inlets and bays, new 
cities and villages will arise, sending to all the markets of the world 
the manufactured productions of the neighboring plains. 

The blast furnace, the rolling mill, the nail factory will all be here 
to manufacture the iron of your adjacent mountains. Workers in 
brass, copper and wood will in the coming years find employment 
here where nature has provided every material in abundance. Thrifty 
and intelligent populations, the greatest of all wealth, will come from 
distant parts and swarm into your rich valleys, and climb the slopes 
of your mineral lands. Who shall say that this vision will not be ful- 
filled ? The Creator has here spread His amplest bounties for the hu- 
man race, and the South now for the first time, with the authority of 
circumstance and ceremony, invites the capital and labor of the world 
to assist in their development. In order to rivet the attention of ob- 
servers to the capabilities of the cotton belt and its diflTerent localities 
for investment and enterprise, I take the liberty of submitting an ad- 
vance sheet of the forthcoming census report for 1880: 

THE COTTON STATES PROPER. 

"Mississippi stands first in total production, while sixth in popula- 
tion, among the cotton States, thus bringing up its product to 0.84, or 
e^er eight-tenths of a bale per head. At first blush, in view of the 
great fertility and large area of the Mississippi (" Yazoo ") bottom with- 
in the limits of the State, the inference would be that the high position 
of the State's production is due to these fertile lowlands. But a de- 
tailed discussion of the areas of production shows that a little over one- 
fourth (27 per cent. ) only of the cotton product of the State comes 
from the Yazoo bottom, while over one-half of the whole is produced 
in what might be termed the first-class uplands, viz.: the table-land 
belt bordering the Mississippi bluff and the two prarie belts. The re- 
maining one-fourth is grown scatteringly over the sandy uplands, 
bearing more or less of the long and short-leaf pine that form about half 
the area of the State. 

"It thus appears that the high production of Mississippi is due to 
the tact that quite one-half of its territory is occupied by soils of ex- 
ceptional fertility, coupled with the circumstance that cotton culture 
is the one pursuit to which the population devotes itself * * * -st 
It is evident that the State of Mississippi alone could produce the en- 
tire crop now grown in the United States. 

" Georgia stands second in total production, but examination shows 
the causes that place the State so near to the liighest in position to be 
widely different from those obtaining in Mississippi. With half a mil- 
lion more inhabitants than Mississippi, the cotton product of Georgia 
is a little over half a bale (0.53) per head, and the average product per 
acre is but two thirds of that of Mississippi (0.31 to 0.46). A detailed 
examination of the soils of Georgia shows that her area of what in 
Mississippi are considered first and second-class soils is very limited — 
far more so than is the case in the neighboring State of Alabama. Yet 
Georgia stands slightly ahead of Alabama in the average cotton pro- 
duct per acre, and is only a trifle behind in production per capita (0.53 
to 0.55). In other words, the high position of Georgia is due, not to 



21 

natural advantages, but to better cultivation of the soil, the use of fer- 
tilizers, and tlie thrift of an industrious population. Reports also show 
a considerable extension of the area of cotton culture to, and even be- 
yond, the Blue Ridge. 

"The geographical position of Alabama between the States standing 
at the head of the list gives double interest to the question regarding 
the causes of her position in the same, which would be the third place, 
but for the enormous area of Texas, where the sparse population has 
thus far picked the best lands. Alabama is a newer State than Geor- 
gia, and there reach into it from Mississippi the two belts of rich prai- 
rie lands which terminate short of the Chtaathooche. Northern Ala- 
bama is almost identical in its agricultural features with Northern 
Georgia; and we should therefore expect to find a much more marked 
difference in favor of Alabama than is shown in the figures above 
quoted. The inference seems irresistible that while Mississippi is 
still partly within the period of the first flush of fertility, and Georgia 
has reached the stage when the use of fertilizers is renovating her 
fields, the soils of Alabama have passed the first stage, and her popula- 
tion has not yet realized the necessity of sustaining the soil's powers 
by fertilization. 

" Cotton culture in Florida is chiefly confined to the northern part 
of the State, lying adjacent to Georgia. This is mostly pine land, and is 
cultivated without manure; hence the low product of less than a quar- 
ter of a bale per acre. Notwithstanding this, there has been a respect- 
able increase in production since 1870, though not so large as that of 
the population, a circumstance doubtless due to the prominent position 
which the culture of tropical fruits has assumed during the past decade, 
and to which most of the newcomers have given their attention. No 
cotton is returned from the portion of the State lying south of Tampa 
Bay, and but little from the coasts, as w^ell as from the extreme west- 
ern part. iThe cotton-growing counties show an average product of 
0.26, or a little over a quarter of a bale per inhabitant. 

"Tennessee presents the striking fact of a total production less than 
half of that of Alabama, but with an average product per acre one-half 
greater, equal even to that of Mississippi. The cause of this state of 
things becomes apparent when we circumscribe the regions ot produc- 
tion in accordance with the natural divisions of the State. It then ap- 
pears that the portion of Tennessee lyin^ east of the 'central basin " 
(the valleys of the Cumberland, Duck, and Elk Rivers, with tributa- 
ries), from the eastern highland rim to the line of ISorth Carolina, and 
comprising about one-third of the area of the State, produces only 
about 1 per cent, of the total amount of cotton, while 84 per cent, of 
this total is produced in the country lying between the Tennessee and 
Mississippi Rivers. More than this, within this region the average 
production per inhabitant is 0.52 of a bale, and a little less (0.49) of a 
bale) per acre, while the average for the entire State, per inhabitant, 
is only 0.21 of a bale. Again, of the above 84 per cent., 70 belongs to 
the two tiers of counties lying nearest to the Mississippi River. Of 
these, only a small portion is bottom land of the Mississippi River, the 
greater part by far being gently-rolling uplands ("table-lands "), such 
as form a large body in Northwestern Mississippi also, and extend, 
gradually narrowing, as far south as Baton Rouge, La. 

" It thus appears that the cotton production of Tennessee is concen- 
trated ui)on a comparatively small area of highly productive land, the 
rest being devoted preferably to grain, tobacco, grasses, and other in- 
dustries, to which the soils and climates are more specially adapted, 
while in the other cotton-growing States cotton is very generally 
grown as a matter ot course, regardless of other cultures, of which the 
partial pursuit, at least, would in the end be more profitable than ex- 
clusive cotton planting. 



22 

"Arkansas produces its 608,000 bales (in round numbers) on some- 
what over a million of acres, making the average product per acre 
slightly higher than that of Louisiana, viz: 0.58, and 0.76 of a bale 
per inhabitant. A cursory examination shows that by far the greater 
portion of the cotton produced comes from the eastern and southern 
portions of the State, which contains a large proportion of bottom 
lands, while in the extreme northern and northwestern counties but 
little cotton is grown. The form of the returns makes it difficult to 
segregate the production of the uplands and lowlands in this case, but 
the product per acre of Chicot County stands second to the highest on 
the list, and it is safe to assume that, on detailed discussion, the aver- 
age production of uplands and lowlands will be fouiid to be, respect- 
ively, about the same as in Louisiana. In both States alike the use of 
fertilizers in the large-scale production of cotton may be regarded as 
wholly insignificant in its influence on the general result. 

" In the case of Louisiana, as in that of Tennessee, a considerable 
portion (about one-fourth) of the State is devoted mainly to other cul- 
tures than that of cotton, the sugar-cane gaining precedence in the 
lowland country lying south of the mouth of Red River, in which only 
about 6 per cent, of the total amount of cotton is produced, but at the 
average rate of 0.80 bale per acre. JSTeai'ly the same, or a slightly higher 
average per acre is obtained in the alluvial lands north and west of the 
mouth of Red River, and in the Red River Valley, itself. The snlall 
Parish of East Carroll, in the northeast corner of the State, has the high- 
est average product per acre of any county in the cotton States (0.95 of 
a bale), and stands second in total production within the State . It will 
be noted that East Carroll corners upon Washington County, Missis- 
{sippi, and adjoins Chicot County, Arkansas; both representing maxima 
of production in their respective States. We have here, apparently, 
the center of maximum cotton production on natural soils in the United 
States, and probably in the world. 

" The average product per acre in the uplands of Louisiana is ap- 
proximately half of that of the lowlands ("0.41); and as the average 
for the State is 0.59, it follows that somewhat more than half the acre- 
age in cotton belongs to the uplanas, while the lowlands yield nearly 
two-thirds of the entire amount. This predominance or lowland cot- 
ton explai'is the higher average product per acre in Louisiana as com- 
pared with Mississippi, where less than one-third the cotton produc- 
tion comes from the Yazoo bottom lands. Within the cotton-growing 
region proper, the average production is approximately 0.95 of a bale 
per inhabitant; but as this figure excludes the entire population of the 
city of New Orleans, so largely interested in cotton, it is not fairly 
comparable with the proportion existing in other States. If one-half 
of the population of the city be taken as mainly interested in cotton, 
the per capita proportion would stand 0.80 bale. 

"The great State of Texas stands third in the list of total produc- 
tions, while first in population, among the cotton States. The 
fact shown by the figures of acreage and total production, viz., that 
in the average product per acre it stands eleventh in rank (0.37), will 
be a surprise to most persons, and is doubtless in part to be accounted 
for as an accident of the season, the year 1879 having been an un- 
usually dry one, and therefore especially unfavorable to a country in 
which so large a proportion of the staple is grown on upland soils. 
Among these, the heavy black prairie soils, so highly productive in fliv- 
orable seasons, are notoriously the first to suffer from drouth. It is 
probable that inordinary seasons the average product per acre in Texas 
would approach more nearly that of Mississippi or South Carolina. 

"A. discussion of the returns shows that fifty-two per cent, of the 
cotton product of Texas is grown in the northeastern portion of the 
State, north of the thirty-second parallel and east of the ninety-eightli 



. 23 

meridian, and that within this region the production is highest in the 
counties adjoining Red River, the product averaging 0.54 hale per 
acre. Southward of the thirty-secon parallel the average yield is 0.34 
bale per acre. The coast counties produce but little cotton; inland, 
between Red River and San ^Antonio, about thirty-five per cent, of 
the total product is grown on black prairie land, the average product 
per acre on such land being (in 1879) 0.34 bale per acre. A compari- 
son of the returns of the present census with those of the preceding one 
shows that within the last decade the region of cotton production has 
extended seventy-five miles to westward. On the south but very 
little cotton is grown south and west of the Nueces River. 

" Compared to the area of fertile lands susceptible of cotton culture, 
the present cotton acreage of Texas is almost insignificant. 

"The case of the two Carolinas, with respect to cotton production, 
are nearly alike, and may as well be considered together. In both States 
the average cotton product per acre is high as compared with that of 
Georgia and Alabama, and, in the case of North Carolina, approaches 
that of Mississippi itself. Without entering into details on the subject 
of the distribution of the cotton production in these States, it may be 
broadly stated that the culture of cotton is reported to have greatly ex- 
tended of late, even up the slopes of the Blue Ridge itself. Among the 
causes lea ding to this gratifying result, reports received show that tlie 
use of fertilizers, and, with it, better methods of culture, are foremost. 

" In other words, these two members of the original Union of thir- 
teen have been first to place cotton culture upon a permanent founda- 
tion, by adopting a system of regular returns to the soil; and the high 
product per acre, as compared with Georgia and Alabama on the one 
hand and with Mississippi on the other, exhibits tellingly the tide wave 
advancing westward; the ebb of the first native fertility in Alabama 
and Florida, the rising tide of restored productiveness in the Carolinas, 
with Georgia on the westward slope of the wave, on which it is rising and 
showing distinctly a higher product per acre in its eastern than in its 
western portion, where the use of fertilizers is much less extended." 

Throughout all this vast extent of country, and portions of certain 
other States besides, the capabilities of the South for cotton-raising and 
for manufacturing her own productions are practically without limit. 
There are young men and women now listening to me who will as 
certainlj" behold a crop of twenty million bales in the future as thej^ 
have seen one of five millions in the past. And they will, with the 
same certainty, behold the purchasers of the whole world coming here 
not only for their supply of the raw material, but also for manufac- 
tured goods in such quantities as to rule all markets, foreign and do- 
mestic. Such is the great and puissant future which I foresee for the 
South, springing forward, as she now is, to grtsp all the improve- 
ments, the inventions, and the progression of the present age, and all 
the benefits and blessings of her Government. 

Sir, I come from the Northwest, and I bring to you the hail of hope, 
good cheer, and American brotherhood from every true and manly 
heart in all that mighty region. "We, too, like yourselves, are a pro- 
ducing people, and have derived our riches and our power from the 
soil ; but the time has come for us, as well as for you, to diversify our 
labor and give it a wider range for emploj^ment; to manufacture for 
ourselves the necessaries and comforts of life, and to reap the advan- 



<1_ 



24 

tages which arise from activity and production in all the industries. 
Indiana is leading in that direction with an agricultural productive- 
ness scarcely equalled in proportion to area and population on the face 
of the globe. She is at the same time rapidly developing her manu- 
facturing resources and bringing into harmony all her industrial pur- 
suits. In 1880 Indiana produced more wheat than all the New Eng- 
land States, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, 
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Louisi- 
ana and Texas combined; more, as it will be seen, than all the Atlan- 
tic seaboard and Culf States, with the exception of Pennsylvania, put 
together. In the same year her corn crop was greater than that of 
all the Atlantic States north of Virginia, including Pennsylvania and 
all the New England States, and adding to them the crop of the great 
State of Texas. She is the second State for wheat and the fourth for 
corn in the Union, with far less territory than any State which sur- 
passes her. Yet the people of Indiana, with all their tremendous ca- 
pacity for agriculture, are not content to ignore all the other branches 
of remunerative industry. They are reaching forth their hands, 
guided by skill and intelligence, to develop all the bounties of nature, 
and to pluck fruits in all the fields of labor. And if in paying a tarifi 
tax for Government support, as revenue, they find that the laws com- 
pelling them to do so likewise foster, encourage and protect their 
young and growing manufactures of iron, hard wood, glass, woolen 
and cotton, they will regard them with favor, as the result of wise 
legislation. Indeed, they will demand such an adjustment of the 
tariff as to insure that end. The interests of this country are rapidly 
becoming homogeneous, and the interests of different sections do not 
clash as they once did. "With the exception of the question of trans- 
portation as an outlet for the production of interior States, like my 
own, and the consequent improvement of the Mississippi river and 
her tributaries as cheap water lines to the seaboard, there is but little 
left to excite a struggle likely to be defined by sections. Blessed are 
the peacemakers between the sections, and blessed is that peace and 
community of interest and of feeling which now prevail, and which 
are growing stronger as time goes on ! 

And now, sir, my duties on this occasion are drawing to a close. 
Soon this grand Exposition will be declared formally open ; a few 
moments more, and the first World's Fair on Southern soil will begin 
its three months' career. All the Nations will take note of the ex • 
periment. Your brethern of the East, of the North and the West are 
looking on, hoping all things, and believing all things favorable to its 
success. After a little while it will take its place in history, and from 
that point may a new era of National prosperity be opened before the 
American people, and may they be inspired with new and lasting 
affection for each other. 









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